Landing apparatus for airships



' March 25, 1924. 1,488,336

F. GENTZCKE LANDING APPARATUS FOR AIRSHIPS Filed 0613s, 1923 PatentedMar. 25, 1924.

UNITED STATES 1 3% P ENT. .O MEI FRITZ GENTZCKE, OF ZEES EN, NEARKONIGSWUSTIEJRHAUSEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO LUFTFAHRZEUGBAUSGHUETTE-LANZ, 0F MANNHEIM-RHEINAU, GERMANY.

LANDING APPARATUS FOR AIRSHI PS.

Application flied October a, 1923. Serial in. 7,323.

To all whom it may concern: H Be it known that I, FRITZ Zeesen, nearKonigsw-usterhausen, Germany, have invented certa n new and usefulImprovements in Landing Apparatus for Airships (for which I have filedapplications; for patents in Germany August 26th, 1922) ,f I

position at a distance from the ship the of which the following is aspecification.

It is known to employ a running vehicle, such as a truck, a travellingcarriage or the like, for mooring an airship thereto and at the sametime anchoring the ship at a stationary point in a manner that saidvehicle'will be free and adapted to follow the, turning movements of theship by runn ng, around said stationary anchoring po1nt..

Further it is known to connect the front end or point of the. ship bymeans of ropes or cables with a point lying in the d1rect1on of thecourse of the incoming ship. and with two lateral points of symmetricallocation, whereby the ship will be moored or anchored in a manner to' befree to turn around the first named point.

Both methods of thus movably anchoring an airship require a large numberof hands for catching the ship, leading her to the mooring points on theground and securing her in a properly moored condition. The object of myinvention is to remedy this defect.

With this object in view I rov de an apparatus or device by means 0which the incoming airship can be brought to a smooth landing andmooring at the anchorage without requiring a lot of towing hands.

In the accompanying drawings Figures 1 to 5 illustrate a few embodimentsof the invention by way of example. The landing ropes 1, 10 and 11thrown down from the ship are connected with ropes wound on winches orwindlasses- 3 mounted on vehicles 4, such as trucks, travellingcarriages or the like, adapted to run round about the stationary point 2on concentrically located circular tracks or railways 5, and there isalso a winch mounted at the stationary point 2 which is the centre ofthe said tracks or railways 5.

The main mooring rope or cable 1 connects the stationary turning pointor centre 2 with the front point 6of the ship and serves the purpose ofovercoming the air resistance in case of contrary wind, lower-GE'NTZCKE, citizen of the German Republi residing at' i ing the frontend of the ship and recover-J ing her to a point for attaining thedesired 4 final distance from the turning centre 2.

The vehicles 4 are constructed and mount ed to run easilyflon the tracksbut they are lockedto be incapable of displacement in verticaldirection. By hauling the ropes 10 the said vehicles are caused toassume a thus be moored as regards her position in.

vertical direction. After the ship has been brought down to the trucksit may, be moored or connected with the vehicles with the aid of anysuitable means so that the landing rope 1 can be untied and withdrawninto the ship. I

Yawing of the airship, that is to say, drifting laterally from thecourse towards the stationary (point 2 during the described lai1dingprocee ings is prevented by means of two ropes 11 which likewise areattached to the foremost point 6 of the airship, whilst their lower,ends are fixed to two points 9, see Figure 1, which are, situated on theouter track 5 diametrically with respect to the course or direction ofthe arriving airship. The said two mooring points 9 are likewiseconstituted by vehicles which, however, are either braked and locked tobe stationary or ri 'dly connected with each other so as to be a aptedto follow the turning movements of the landing airship without changingthe distance between themselves.

Before the ship has been brought down to the trucks, the point 6 of thelanding airship will be the point about which'the airship will be freeto turn laterally, whilst when it has been brought down to the trucksthe stationary point 2 will be the turning e. g., by means of ropes orcables guided and supported on the circular track at intervals, that isto say, so as to constitute a polygonal structure. In order to ensure ahigh reliability and simplicity of handling the windlasses or winchesthe improvements shown in Figure 3 may be employed. As will be seen inFigure 3 the vehicles I and 9 have no winches. or windlasses, but onlyguiding members for the ropes or cables 10 and 11 running to a commonWindlass-.12 or windlasses at the stationary turning point 2. In orderto preventthe cables or ropes from sliding or dragging they are carriedby rollers on travelling carriages, in particular where they cross thecircular tracks, and the tracks preferably are given an elevationsufficient to allow the cable or rope to sag, as will be readilyunderstood on inspection of Figure For the purpose of accelerating thelanding it will be advisable to shoot off the landrig ropes by means ofa suitable shooting deice.- In this way it will be more readily possibleto drop the ropes in closer vicinity 1 f the turning point 2 for readyconnection with the ropes or cables of the windlasses or Winches. v

The vehicles 4 may, if required, be constructed to be of suflicientlength to afford an efficient mooring of the airship laterally y meansof ropes or cables 7; For the same purpose also auxiliary vehicles 15carrying the windlasses 3 may be employed and these auxiliary vehiclesmay be mounted to run on the same track 5 or on a parallel bytrack oftheir own. In either case the vehicles 15 are rigidly connected with thevehicle 4 by means of members 16 serving as an intermediate means formooring the airship thereto.

The vehicles may be of the type of the so-called travelling carriages ortrucks running on rails or they may be vessels floating in waterchannels of circular form. Instead of water, however, any other liquidmay be used, preferably a liquor of a low freezing point.

It is to be noted from Fig. 1 that the rope 1 in oblique position willexercise a power or force acting vertically on the point of attachment.In order to avoid this, the rope may be given, as shown in Figure 5, ahorizontal position and to this end be guided over a tower or turretprovided on the point 2. IVhen' a tower is used to constitute thestationary point 2 it may be so constructed that the nose of the airshipmay come in contact therewith.

\Vhat I claim is 1. A landing station for airships comprising a tower, atrack concentric therewith, a plurality of vehicles movable on saidtrack, a pair of said vehicles being maintained in relatively fixedrelation, and another of said vehicles being freely movabletherebetween, said vehicles adapted to receivelines from the airship. V

2. A landing station for airships comprising a tower, a pair of tracksof different radii concentric with the tower, a pair of vehicles movableon the larger track and maintained a fixed distance apart, anothervehicle on the larger track and freely movable betweensaid vehicles andan additional vehicle on the smaller track, all of. said vehiclesadapted to receive lines from the airship.

A landing station for airships comprising a center anchorage point, atrack concentric with said-point, a pair of vehicles movable on saidtrack and maintained a fixed distance apart, another vehicle on saidtrack and freely movable between said vehicles, all of said vehicles andsaid anchorage point adapted to receive lines from the airship.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto sub scribed my name in presence oftwo witnesses.

FRITZ GEN'IZOKE.

\Vitnesses: ENNO Bnoosna, O'r'ro BARCHFEDT.

